Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method which perform an adoption/non-adoption process for classifying objects included in an image as adopted or as not adopted and which change the allowable range of a parameter for use in the adoption/non-adoption process, and to a storage medium having an image processing program stored therein.
Description of the Background Art
A screening which narrows down compounds serving as candidates for medical and pharmaceutical products is performed in the course of research and development of the medical and pharmaceutical products. An example of the screening includes the steps of: preparing a plurality of culture solutions into which biological cells are put; adding compounds to the culture solutions while changing various conditions to cultivate the cells; and narrowing down the compounds serving as candidates for medical and pharmaceutical products, based on the culture states of the cells.
In such a screening, a reagent has been hitherto used for the assessment of the culture states of the cells. Specifically, a reagent is applied to the cells to cause the fluorescence reaction of specific molecules in the cells. The culture states of the cells are judged by measuring the fluorescence intensity of the specific molecules in the cells. This method, however, has required the costly reagent, and also has required much time for the fluorescence reaction. In addition, this method has not been capable of observing changes in the same cell with time because the reagent destroys cell walls.
In recent years, three-dimensional culture such that cells are cultivated in three dimensions has been performed to investigate the effects of medical and pharmaceutical products in an environment closer to that in a living body. An important object to be observed in such three-dimensional culture is the state of spheroids which are three-dimensionally aggregated cell clumps. The aforementioned method of measuring the fluorescence is not suitable for the observation of the cell clumps.
To solve such problems, an attempt has been made in recent years to develop an apparatus for observing the culture states of cells by photographing the cells at a high resolution without using any reagent. This apparatus photographs a well plate having a plurality of depressions or wells for culture at predetermined time intervals to clip images of each of the wells from the resultant photographed images. The culture states of the cells in each well are assessed by comparing and analyzing the clipped images with time.
The aforementioned apparatus measures parameters such as the area and optical density of objects corresponding to the cells in the images when classifying the culture states of the cells as adopted or as not adopted from the resultant images. Software in the apparatus judges whether to adopt the cells or not, based on whether the measurement values are within an allowable range or not. Appropriate setting of the allowable range of each of the parameters is important to increase the accuracy of the judgment as to whether to adopt the cells or not using the software. When a user is enabled to change the allowable range of each of the parameters to any value, the result of the judgment as to whether to adopt the cells or not using the software is caused to approach the result of the judgment as to whether to adopt the cells or not through a user's visual check.
A conventional apparatus which enables a user to change the details of image processing is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-212673 (1997).
A large number of parameters are used for the judgment as to whether to adopt the cells or not. It is a difficult operation for a user unskilled in image processing to appropriately select a parameter with an allowable range to be changed from the large number of parameters to adjust the upper limit or the lower limit of the allowable range to an appropriate value.